Hey People,
My fund, INFUSE Ventures, has launched an amazing program for startups, entrepreneurs, or wannabe-entrepreneurs. INFUSE is a unique cleantech fund based at IIM-Ahmedabad and supported by bigwigs such as the Govt. of India, BP, IFC (an arm of the World Bank) etc. We are a VC fund focused on Cleantech (generally speaking any venture that helps the environment) but beyond investments, we are also launching this unique program called PowerStart (in partnership with Asian Development Bank).
All details are below but the summary is as follows:
1. Any startup or individual or team is eligible to apply (no age/income/status/gender/expertise bar).
2. You don't have to have Cleantech experience. Your startup may not even be in Cleantech. All you have to do is to want to build a Cleantech Venture. If you are already a startup in a different domain, you need to have the possibility to apply your current offering to solve cleantech problems profitably. If you are an individual or a team, you should have some vision as to how your current expertise can be used to build a scalable cleantech venture. Of course, if you are already a cleantech startup or entrepreneur, it will be better. But we will actively scout for people from outside cleantech domains as well. We believe that, just like the internet, cleantech is an inherently multi-disciplinary field and offers tremendous opportunities for people from all walks of life.
3. If selected, your startup will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid cleantech bootcamp at IIM-A. You will meet many other startups/entrepreneurs, get upto speed on cleantech opportunities, work with luminaries in the field, get mentored and evaluate how you can leverage your startup to build a cleantech venture. If we like what you do in the boot-camp, you will be invited to continue in our mentoring program. At the end of it, you will get an opportunity to pitch to us to get funding.
4. If you are an entrepreneur/team, you will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid bootcamp at IIM-A, the same as the one described above. Promising individuals/teams from the bootcamp will be offered to join us as 'Entrepreneur-in-residence' (this is a cool title, I was one at Intel Capital). You will be able to continue to stay at IIM-A (at our expense) for a month more to work on developing a cleantech venture idea. If we like it, you will be able to pitch for our seed funding.
5. Don't be afraid by the term 'Cleantech'. It's not just renewable energy. We are very generous with this term. For example, helping save energy, materials, resources thru the use of some other technology or IT is absolutely fine. If you are thinking of shared transportation (such as enabling random people to carpool together on an IT platform) that'd be absolutely interesting for us. If you can use your knowledge about pattern recognition to help water management, we'd be thrilled to have you aboard. You don't even have to be a technologist. If you have great experience in selling stuff to rural or semi-urban areas and you can leverage that into a profitable venture to sell energy-efficient equipment to the farmers, we'd like that. If you are a finance professional and can leverage that to create a unique business model to finance energy projects, we'd love to hear from you. These are just examples to tell you how widely we think (and you should too).
The mail below has all the information and links. If you have any questions, please refer to all that first. If you're still confused, talk to the people mentioned below. If you still cannot get answers, send me an email at
an...@infuseventures.in (not on my gmail address)
I think Pune has a tremendous potential to do great in cleantech. If you didn't know, we are already recognized as one of the biggest cleantech hubs. We already have big cleantech companies such as Thermax, Suzlon, Praj etc with their headquarters here. Besides, we are very strong in many industries (engineering, design, IT, automotive) that have great expertise bank to leverage for cleantech. And finally, our entrepreneurial groups such as POCC, TiE are some of the most active in India.
Please consider this strongly. Opportunities like this don't come every day.
Cleantech is slated to be as big or bigger than the internet eventually since the environmental problems touch every aspect of life. There's a lot to be done, profitably and meaningfully.
Hope to see a bunch of Pune companies and entrepreneurs in Ahmedabad soon. Please spread the word in your networks: online and offline.
Shwetank, Navin, and Mandar, please post this on LinkedPune, Punetech, and TiE networks respectively.
thx
anil
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Mohsin Bin Latheef <moh...@iimahd.ernet.in>
Date: Tue, Oct 1, 2013 at 9:40 PM
Subject: ‘PowerStart’ accelerator program for current/aspiring cleantech entrepreneurs
To: core team <
co...@infuseventures.in>
Greetings
from Infuse Ventures – a cleantech
focused early stage venture fund managed by IIM Ahmedabad's Centre for Innovation Incubation and
Entrepreneurship. We are pleased to announce, in association with the Asian Development Bank, the launch of ‘PowerStart’
- a unique bootcamp and accelerator programme for current/aspiring
entrepreneurs in the cleantech & renewable energy space in India.
PowerStart has the following two ‘tracks’:
- START-UP
TRACK: targeted at existing ventures or teams that have already
initiated their effort towards solving a problem through a sustainable,
cleantech-related solution. Applications can be made here: www.f6s.com/powerstart
- ASPIRING
ENTREPRENEURS TRACK: aimed at individuals/teams with the relevant
background, experience, skillsets and the desire to create a venture in
the sustainability space. Application for this track can be made by
sending us your CV along with a ‘statement of purpose’ (SOP)
to am...@infuseventures.in.
The SOP form is available here: http://goo.gl/PH0WeF.
Make sure to mention “PowerStart EIR Application” in the subject
line.
Last date of application (to both tracks) is 19th October, 2013.
PowerStart Bootcamp (11–14 November 2013): the selected start-up teams
and aspiring entrepreneurs will be invited to attend an all-expenses-paid
bootcamp at IIM Ahmedabad. The bootcamp is aimed at providing a comprehensive
overview of opportunities and know-how for creating/accelerating highly
scalable cleantech ventures, as well as access to our wide network of industry
experts and mentors.
Post the bootcamp, selected start-up teams will be provided with active
mentoring support towards accelerating their ventures. Selected ‘Entrepreneurs-in-Residence’
or EIRs (chosen from the ‘Aspiring Entrepreneurs’) will stay back in Ahmedabad
for about a month, jointly developing their business plans with us, following
which they will be engaged in an intensive ‘Venture Creation’ process. Both
start-up teams and ventures created by EIRs will have the opportunity to pitch
to Infuse for seed funding. Infuse invests across seed and early stage with
investments ranging from Rs 25 lacs – Rs 5 crores.
More details can be found in the attached Program Brief (also available
at http://goo.gl/toKrzS) and FAQs (also
available at http://goo.gl/DQzzqL). Please
do get in touch with us for queries or more information.
Sincerely,
Infuse Ventures Team
Centre for Innovation Incubation and
Entrepreneurship (CIIE)
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad – 380015, Gujarat, India
www.infuseventures.in
Tel.: +91-79-6632-4201, 4234, 4233
sup...@infuseventures.in
Find Infuse Ventures on Twitter
--
Anil M. ParanjapeCell: +91-901-105-6303
